Always scout mode.

Scouts and Soldiers

I continue to be fascinated with how people believe… crazy shit. Sometimes, the craziest of it. And those things can sometimes be political, but they’re not always.

There are a lot of commonly held beliefs that make no sense. Sometimes, those things make no rational sense, but often, they make no moral, communal, or economic sense either.

Sometimes, beliefs just defy logic.

Regardless of how those beliefs came to be, we learn from cognitive science how some folks are more open to exploring alternatives to deeply held beliefs. Because for some, even though they’re deeply held, they’re not permanently cemented.

People who exhibit tendencies towards openness, towards both ideas and generally, are less prone to believing misinformation because they’re willing to engage with concepts and thus more adept at sniffing out untruths.

Most often, it’s those who have experienced more in life that show increased openness to new things. New foods. New exercise. New art and culture. New ideas and experiences.

Those people tend to approach the world with a scout mindset, while others approach with a soldier mindset. The difference is how willing an individual is to test their understanding by scouting for new or different information or alternatively, how forcefully an individual might deploy soldiers to protect their convenient beliefs.

Obviously, college was one of the first places that I was forced to adopt a scout mindset.

Connecting computer science courses to business courses, to elementary education and philosophy, to world music and film. All of these gave me beginner’s level mental models—imagine getting the smallest lego kit available with each piece representing an important concept of that topic—that helped me appreciate and explore knowledge related to them when I encountered them later.

Being able to discern fact from conjecture requires having both a developed mental model about a topic and also a scout’s mindset that desires to explore the nuance… to identify how lies, dressed in slivers of truth, can become infectious.

Once you adopt a scout mindset, it’s really hard to turn it off.

The most you learn about any one thing usually opens up learning about something ancillary. You can’t read a book about Tuberculosis and not learn about history and geography. You can’t study a piece of music without considering the origin of the track, the creator, and the context of when and why it was created. Each piece of learning stacked with my starter “lego set” or gifted me another that slowly built an eagerness to continue to learn—and a willingness to hold beliefs a little less tightly.

I hope this finds you feeling scoutly.

Books Worth Checking Out

Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green

Released March 2025, Everything is Tuberculosis is an exploration of the history of the disease that’s claimed more human life than anything else and how it shaped our world, and how it continues to highlight inequities both in America and globally. Green has made a habit of being able to connect Tuberculosis to nearly everything, from Taylor Swift to New Mexico to cowboy hats and so much more. It can be heavy at times, but maintains a hopefulness that we will continue to evade this disease and that we’ll eventually find a way to utilize the medicine that exists today to save the life of EVERYONE who finds themselves on the wrong end of a diagnosis, because it is 100% treatable. AMAZON

No More Tears, Gardiner Harris

Releasing April 8, 2025, No More Tears is an exposé that shows the nefarious past of our most esteemed Johnson & Johnson—while the focus here is on J&J, it stands to reason that every pharma and medical equipment manufacturer does the same things. Throughout the book, the author recounts story after story of the company hiding ingredients known to cause harm, hiding studies that prove drugs fail or do more harm than good, how J&J incentivized salespeople, and the corruption of doctors and government entities. The double-edged sword of the book is that, on the plus side, people will leave it feeling more skeptical of the medical and big pharma industry, but on the down side, people will leave it feeling more skeptical of the medical and big pharma industry at a time when psuedo-science and fake natural cures are causing new levels of damage to human health. Funzies. AMAZON

The Bible Says So, Dan McClellan

Releasing April 29, 2025, the internet creator and PhD brings his years of combatting misinformation about the Bible to the non-fiction bookstore. I have an advance copy and am enjoying reading it. McClellan’s goal is to help modern readers better interpret ‘the bible’ through the lens of the original authors and audiences. He does go down some politically charged domains, but again, using a scout mindset enables the exploration of some of the ideas before deciding if they hold merit or not. AMAZON

Other Stuff Worth Sharing

[Movie] Flow | The Latvian Oscar-winning picture was a delight to watch. But be warned, there’s no spoken word. You’ll be left feeling the story via the reactions of the animals throughout the film as they explore their world, escape hardship, and build and test friendships. There are a few elements of science fiction thrown in to give it an air of weirdness, but overall, the premise is fairly grounded. What makes it even more impressive, though, is that the entire thing was created in Blender, a free open-source software. Watch it for free on Max, or rent it everywhere else. ROTTENTOMATOES

[Article] How ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ rewrote the indie movie marketing playbook | In 2004, the marketing team for "Napoleon Dynamite" created a successful campaign by screening the film for free and building a fan community online. They focused on audience engagement and repeat viewings, which turned attendees into enthusiastic promoters. As someone who loved this movie, I was reluctant to believe that marketing hype is what gave it its original pop, but alas, scout mindset. READ

[Article] Amazon Uses Arsenal of AI Weapons Against Workers | While the story itself is about unions, what to focus on here is the sophistication of a corporate big brother tracking and programming its workers. While you may be against unions, consider the implications of an anti-public education agenda if Amazon had an education product or anti-local doctors as they push their medical care products. Anyway, the study reveals how Amazon uses advanced algorithms and surveillance to suppress union efforts at its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse. READ

[Article] The Latest Millennial Staple to Become Uncool? Being Online | Being online is losing its appeal among younger millennials and Gen Z, as they increasingly prefer a life with less social media. Many are deleting their accounts and opting for simpler, offline activities to improve their mental health and find clarity. As someone who has been chronically online for 20 years, I hope to follow suit—but then, I’ve never been that cool. READ

[Video] I Asked My Students to Hook Up an Original Nintendo System to an Old TV | A fun experiment asking a group of today’s teenagers to hook up an old Nintendo to an old TV… the way we used to do it. Can they figure it out? WATCH

What I’m Thinking About for Next Time

To some extent, we’re all programmed by the media we consume. Alongside our decisions, algorithms play a big part in that. Next time, I’ll explore a mindset when engaging with feeds and some options you can use to escape algorithms altogether and reclaim some media freedom in your life.

Thanks for reading. Any typos were made on purpose to ensure you were paying attention. ;)